It kind of sounded like Dorothy had encountered a very stereotypical pirate in Oz. As in:

"Wherrrre ya from, matey?""Kansas!""ARRRRRR, Kansas!"

With us Brits sometimes having problems with the way American place-names are pronounced: my uncle thought up a nice memory-aid for the pronunciation of Arkansas.' The carpenter's wife wants him to listen to her, but to carry on with his work while he does; so she says to him, " 'ark an' saw".'

If anyone's interested, there's book called 'Rude Britain' that runs down a list of the top 100 rudest place names in Britain. I find it absolutely hilarious (I have the kind of sense of humour) that there are places called things like Swallow Breast. And Fingringhoe. And Titlington. And other much ruder things.

There are some truly magnificently weird village and town names dotted around Britain though, I guess from the constant mixing of languages. Two of the best - we went on holiday to Devon last year, and on the drive down we went past Queen Camel and Bishop's Nympton. I don't know what a nympton is, but it sounds painful.

ETA I can't believe nobody's mentioned Ugley yet - a very charming village not too far from where I grew up that never failed to elicit giggles on driving through.

« Last Edit: May 20, 2013, 06:49:16 AM by Dawse »

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'A troth, by the way, is a small furry creature with fins, the offspring of a trout and a sloth. I often wonder what they saw in each other, but then I suppose the sloth, being upside down, would tend to have a different slant on things.'

ETA I can't believe nobody's mentioned Ugley yet - a very charming village not too far from where I grew up that never failed to elicit giggles on driving through.

Posting, though feeling a little apprehensive about being told off for coming across as more sexist than humorous: that excellent and beneficent British voluntary undertaking the Women's Institute, has a branch in pretty well every community in the UK. Standard practice for referring to a particular branch is, "The [name of community] Women's Institute." However, the ladies of the village of Ugley, Essex (as mentioned by Dawse), and those of the village of Loose, in Kent; got special dispensation to call their units of the organisation: "The Women's Institute, [name of community] Branch."